On the British Everest expedition of 1953, Charles Evans and Tom Bourdillon made the first summit attempt, using experimental closed-circuit oxygen sets. They pushed to the South Summit before exhaustion and failing oxygen equipment forced them back, agonizingly close to the top. Their reconnaissance, however, revealed the final ridge's route, giving expedition leader John Hunt the information needed to send Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on the successful summit push three days later.
Evans and Bourdillon set out before dawn on May 26, 1953, using a closed-circuit oxygen system that was experimental and unreliable at the altitudes they intended to reach. They fought through knee-deep snow and biting wind to reach the South Summit, at 28,700 feet, becoming the highest humans yet recorded—but the true summit, still 300 feet higher along a knife-edge ridge, remained tantalizingly out of reach.
Bourdillon's oxygen set began to fail, and with darkness approaching and their strength ebbing, the pair made the wrenching decision to turn back rather than risk becoming the latest names added to Everest's toll of the dead. Their descent was harrowing; both men were near collapse by the time they reached camp.
Their failure proved indispensable. Expedition leader John Hunt used their detailed observations of the route beyond the South Summit—including the rock step that would later be named the Hillary Step—to plan the final assault. Three days later, on May 29, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay completed what Evans and Bourdillon had begun, becoming the first men confirmed to stand atop the world's highest peak.
Key people: Charles Evans, Tom Bourdillon, John Hunt